Messages

511

Off Topic / Re: GTX 480/470 Released

« on: March 26, 2010, 11:55:32 PM »

The GF100 focuses much more on dx11 than anything else.  In tests of tesselation the 480 showed to be much stronger than the 5870.  When dx11 becomes mainstream, the real power of the 480's will be shown and will probably get close to the 5970 in terms of performance.  The temps and power are what's seriously preventing me from getting one of these (other than the fact that they're out of stock), I really don't want to get a 480 and a waterblock to cool it and I'm not sure if my psu can power it along with everything else in my rig.

The GTX4xx's have been designed with superior tessellation in mind, however, that increased load is shared with the shader-handling portion of the card. What this means is that tessellation will have a large impact on performance with shaders. The "Heaven" benchmark is almost purely Tesselation so will no doubt give the new Nvidia cards a clear victory. What we need to see is real world performance with tessellation.

Cost, power consumption, heat output...these are all valid reasons to avoid the new Nvidia cards at this time. If you are planning on buying a new GPU in the near future, AMD/ATI offer the best bang for buck. I've been "rocking" a 5870 for about 2 days now and I've been thoroughly enjoying Eyefinity and the great performance I am getting. Even BL works with it!

512

Off Topic / Re: GTX 480/470 Released

« on: March 26, 2010, 11:28:40 PM »

Not expected to be available till mid-April in any considerable quantities.

Performance of the GTX480 is slightly better than the HD5870 but costs significantly more and uses way more power.

The GTX470 has little to offer as it's performance is about the same as the HD5850 but it too costs significantly more.

The only combination even worth considering is two GTX480s in SLI as these do offer a considerable performance bonus over the HD5970 but it requires an immense amount of power and is really only for the insane.

The best statement I've read about the new cards is that at idle, the fan on the 480 uses more than the total power draw of the 5870 at idle.

The "next generation" arrived about 4 months ago if you are refering at all to DX11 or to the performance levels of the ATI 58xx series/GTX 4xx series.

513

Help / Re: Game Zooms in too much.

« on: March 26, 2010, 04:27:12 PM »

setdefaultfov("100 100 100");
Is default. The F key decreases it, and any higher numbers are the "opposite" of the F key, kind of like a fish eye lens, but tends to make things stretch unnaturally.
Try 125 125 125.

Ah, that works great. Thanks.

Problem solved

514

Help / Re: Game Zooms in too much.

« on: March 26, 2010, 02:16:03 PM »

try out the fov command in the console.

Whats the FOV command exactly? I know it is Field of View, but what do I need to type in to the console?

515

Help / Re: Game Zooms in too much.

« on: March 25, 2010, 10:02:53 PM »

Oh. hmmmm

1.Try a different resolution
2.Redownload blockland after backing up addons
3.Remove the Eyefinity thing.

The game runs fine at 'normal' resolutions. Addons are not the cause.

The "Eyefinity thing" is kinda what I am trying to use.

Really, the effect is the same as if you were switching from a 4:3 monitor ration to a 16:10...IE. the game zooms in the camera to occupy the wider space. This effect is greater considering the increased width. This is known as "Vert-".

I'm just wondering how difficult it would be to alter the game to run "hor+".

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/Aspect_Ratio
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/Vert_-
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/Hor_plus

516

Help / Re: Game Zooms in too much.

« on: March 25, 2010, 09:22:07 PM »

Is your camera zoom locked in?

Press F

No. F causes the game to zoom in even further. This is the "default" zoom level.

517

Off Topic / Re: Rate my PC

« on: March 25, 2010, 09:08:08 PM »

I just installed my new HD5870...Eyefinity is awesome.

On another note...anyone in the market for a GTX 260?

518

Help / Game Zooms in too much.

« on: March 25, 2010, 09:04:52 PM »

I just got my Eyefinity setup running and tested BL. To my surprise it let me select the correct resolution and the game runs fine.

However there is a slight problem with the game zooming in too much in both first and third person perspectives.

I've attached a screenshot of the problem. The resolution I'm trying to play at is 5760x1080.

519

Off Topic / Re: My little pet peeve , I'd like to call it like that.

« on: March 25, 2010, 12:16:51 AM »

The shortcomings of the melee weapons in BL are a result of how the Torque Game Engine handles them...or rather how it 'cheats' to do so.

If I remember correctly, melee weapons are really just guns which shoot short-range, invisible, projectiles. The sword is small in order to avoid taking up too much screen space. It swings fast because it can be hard to hit moving players.

520

Off Topic / Re: Need a New Graphics Card

« on: March 24, 2010, 08:21:26 PM »

The HD4650 is a decent choice for a low-budget card.

You can get it for $30 after a mail-in-rebate.

Or you can pay the full price and get this card which comes with a lifetime warranty.

An HD4670 is the next step up but will cost you at an extra $15-20.

There are slightly more powerful cards you can purchase for under $80 but they typically require an extra power connector which your computer may likely not have or simply don't justify their additional cost.

521

Games / Re: Crysis Multiplayer and Crysis Wars

« on: March 22, 2010, 02:31:10 AM »

Crysis has really poor cheat protection. Don't do what foolish RW did and try to out cheat the cheaters...you just end up getting your ass handed to you.

522

Off Topic / Re: Think Geek 100$ GIVE AWAY

« on: March 21, 2010, 09:16:40 PM »

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/usb-gadgets/c609/

Who ever wins gets to buy that?
Thats cheaper, might get one my self.

That looks quite cool.

523

Gallery / Re: Pretty Sphere

« on: March 21, 2010, 09:08:59 PM »

Hmm, I made an identical sphere several weeks ago for a build. What a coincidence.

524

Off Topic / Re: I need some help here, graphics card wise.

« on: March 19, 2010, 02:47:25 AM »

Breaking off the PS/2 connectors is inadvisable as it could render the board inoperable and will render any warranty you have void.

You can buy flexible PCIex16 extenders but it is a poor fix and still leaves you with the challenge of mounting the card somewhere inside the case and running the monitor cable(s) out of the case.

I'd replace the card with a single slot GPU. No motherboard-breaking, no "ghetto-fixes", just working components.

525

Suggestions & Requests / Re: Map: Planets

« on: March 08, 2010, 11:24:38 PM »

I can confirm the missing texture issue. I joined one of the servers hosting this and many of the textures had been substituted with the default Blockland map textures (such as the sky-sphere being beige).

The original concept of the map is alright, but it isn't a great fit for the TGE.

One of the main challenges was making it playable on a range of computers; low resolution textures on the large planet 'spheres' looked awful, but decreased load times and used up less memory. Using interiors for the surface of each planet was also a major compromise; on the one hand they could be positioned at any height and distance away from the origin without a problem, but on the other hand they are incredibly glitchy, susceptible to lighting anomalies, and can have awful vehicle collisions.

There were some unique features to the original release such as a deadly sun and zero-gravity but they didn't really redeem the shortcomings of what turned out to be an ill constructed map. It could be remade on a less ambitious scale, but I don't approve of the current port.